After going all out, cutting several videos, for Kamala Harris in her failed presidential campaign, Hollywood actor Ben Stiller is lamenting the unsavory environment woke America has helped create and says it has “killed” comedy. Stiller aimed his ire at wokeness in an interview with Collider in which he said that delicate, woke sensibilities have made “edgier” comedy “harder to do now.”
Speaking about his 2008 smash hit comedy Tropic Thunder, the writer-director said that the film — which has since become controversial and accused of peddling “racism” among other things — could not be made today.
“Definitely not at the scale we made it at, too, in terms of the economics of the business,” he said pointing out that the studios gave him $92 million to make the film.
Stiller said that he feels lucky the film, which made $195.7 million worldwide, got made at all, even 16 years ago.
“I think even at the time we were fortunate to get it made, and I credit that, actually, to Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks. He read it and was like, ‘Alright, let’s make this thing.’ It’s a very inside movie when you think about it,” Stiller told Collider.
The 2008 comedy starring Stiller, Robert Downy Jr., and Jack Black, followed the story of a group of down-on-their-luck actors hired to film a Vietnam-styled war film but ended up being abandoned and left to their own devices in a dangerous jungle, but who continue performing their roles while wholly unaware that they were no longer under the control of a film production.
One of the more controversial jokes in Tropic Thunder was the character played by Robert Downey Jr. who, because he is such a method actor, underwent “skin pigmentation” procedures to look black for his role in the film. Consequently, the film has been accused of using “black face” with Downey’s role.
Stiller pointed out that it always was a daring choice, saying, “The idea of Robert playing that character who’s playing an African American character, I mean, incredibly dicey.”
“Even at the time, of course, it was dicey too. The only reason we attempted it was I felt like the joke was very clear in terms of who that joke was on – actors trying to do anything to win awards,” the actor continued.
“But now, in this environment, I don’t even know if I would have ventured to do it, to tell you the truth. I’m being honest,” he said.
The star has apologized for aspects of the film, of course. He apologized for his “Simple Jack” character, which has been criticized as discrimination against mentally challenged people. But Stiller has said that he was not making fun of mentally challenged people, but was instead making fun of unthinking and egotistical actors.
“It was always meant to make fun of actors trying to do anything to win awards. I stand by my apology, the movie… And the great people and work of the @SpecialOlympics,” Stiller said in a recent post on X.
However, while has has apologized for certain aspects of the film, he is not apologetic over all regardless of the attacks on the film — then and now. Stiller says he will “make no apologies” for its existence.
Recently, Stiller took to his X account to reply to a fan who asked him not to apologize for Tropic Thunder.
“I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder. Don’t know who told you that. It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it,” he replied.
Stiller is no stranger to making untoward comments elsewhere. Just this year while he was campaigning for losing Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris, for instance, he cloyingly claimed he “wished he was black”
“She’s going to be the first woman president. She’s Indian, she’s black, she’s everything — I’m Jewish and Irish. I wish I was black. Every white Jewish guy wishes he was black,” Stiller said during a “Comics for Kamala” Harris fundraiser.
Stiller was also mocked for claiming that Harris would represent “change” in Washington even though she was literally part of the incumbent administration and if elected president would simply continue the same policies Joe Biden has perpetrated on America.
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